Photo Gallery: ATFP Gala 2013

Palestinian Statehood

Late afternoon on Nov. 29, 1947, I was almost eight years old and our home in Tel Aviv was gripped by intense expectations that something big was going to happen. Our large Beethoven radio was on and my parents were already sitting on the couch as my 16-year-old sister, Ofra, and I joined them on the living room rug. My father explained: “The world is deciding if we will be a state”.

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Palestinian and Israeli officials will meet in Jordan in February in efforts to support the peace process, King Abdullah II of Jordan was quoted as saying by Al-Hayat newspaper on Wednesday.
Officials from both sides will meet under the auspices of the European Union and United States, the Jordanian King said while visiting the United Kingdom on Tuesday, Al-Hayat reported.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Israel will withhold tax revenues from President Mahmoud Abbas's administration until March at least in response to his statehood campaign at the United Nations, Israel's foreign minister said.
Under interim peace deals, Israel collects some $100 million a month in duties on behalf of the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank -- money that is badly needed to pay public sector salaries.

Almost the last call ATFP World Press Roundup Article
from Haaretz
by
Amira Hass
-
(Opinion)
December 12, 2012 - 1:00am

It is difficult to compete with the phallus that the Hamas movement displayed publicly during its celebrations in Gaza at the end of last week, especially when those dragged into the competition were nondescript functionaries in ties, the remnants of the fatigued Palestine Liberation Organization's leadership. In this competition, European countries waver between the role of observer from the sidelines and that of the functionary's prompter.

On the morning after the vote that upgraded Palestine to a nonmember observer state, United Nations officials were perplexed when they looked at the Palestinian delegation’s bench in the General Assembly Hall. A sign that used to say “Palestine” had been replaced with a sign reading “State of Palestine” — even though the special machine that usually produces these signs at the UN was temporarily out of order.

A U.S. intelligence report predicts growing conflicts between secular Israelis and the ultra-Orthodox and settlers, with the Palestinians getting a state based on the 1967 borders with land swaps by 2030.
The state, however, won't necessarily be formally declared, and the issues of Jerusalem, refugees and the demilitarization of the West Bank might not be solved.
The report predicts that with the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq and eventually Afghanistan, support for Israel will remain the last cause for Muslim anti-U.S. sentiments.

Even as the United Nations has returned to its routine, unproductive agenda, an atmosphere of expectation prevails following the General Assembly resolution granting the Palestinians the status of nonmember observer state. Some even anticipate charges in the International Criminal Court against Israeli leaders and military officers in the expectation that the ICC will accept "Palestine" as a state with the right to present claims.

Had Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu treated the UN General Assembly resolution rationally and coolly instead of waging a fruitless battle against it, he would have rushed to adopt it. After all, it was the organization's most positive resolution in 65 years.

ANKARA/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday that Palestine could pursue Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC) if it pushes ahead with plans to build thousands of new settler housing units in East Jerusalem.

The morning ritual goes like this: three-year-old Ali Misharawi wakes up and reaches for his father's mobile phone. He kisses and strokes the face of his baby brother, Omar, on its small screen. Then he starts asking questions. Why is Omar in paradise? Why did you put my brother into the ground? Why can't I play with him any more?